DS with ASD (Asperger type) hates to write!

[tartanterror]

Any suggestions please?!

DS is 8 and finishing Y3. He has a diagnosis of ASD.
He has hypermobile fingers and some dyspraxic traits.

He has worked hard at Magic Link handwriting and I think the secretarial aspects of his writing have improved loads. He is pleased and we are proud of him.

Today he wanted to enter a competition in a magazine and he struggled to copy out the address on to his postcard. I was quite shocked. It seems he can copy a cursive font, but when it comes to copying type he runs into trouble. Any ideas how to help him get better? Obviously ideas which are indirect would be best (we got his hand strength up by stealth doing The Best Dot to Dot in the World series of books) so is there an equivalent for this problem?

Our next challenge will be working on the cognitive aspects of writing and how to pull a story together. Mindblindness and central coherence problems don't make this easy do they?! Any Aspie-friendly books out there that can give him a recipe for story writing? We don't care if he's not going to be producing amazing fiction, he just needs to get through this part of the curriculum without too much damage to his self esteem!

Next week we will trial an Neo Alphasmart with the OT and we hope to start TTRS touch typing online lessons. Any other top tips or pitfalls to avoid on keyboarding?

Thanks in advance :)

Is this one any good?
www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1291600124/ref=ox_sc_act_image_2?smid=A7CL6GT0UVQKS&psc=1&tag=mumsnetforum-21

Hopeful bump

Have been recommended BBC bitesize dancemat program by senco to help DS type. Haven't looked at it yet but will try to and let you know .

Would it not be a better life skill to teach him to use Word than an alphasmart? I've never seen the point in them. The pupils in my Resource all use laptops for writing-even SATs can be done on these.

How's his reading? I use the Descriptosaurus books with my kids which is very successful- they do require good reading skills though. I also use the 'Brilliant' creative writing books for story frames and starters.

I find that creative writing can be achieved if you put it within black and white boundaries. So.. for an adventure story- 1) boring start 2) something unusual happens 3) there is danger 4) back to boring. Once they get absolutely used to a set formula they can start to branch out the ideas a bit.

Thanks violet and lowdoor

We did a bit of dancemat. It is free so seems to be suggested a lot. It was OK and got us going initially. Would be good to hear how you get on with it.

His reading is good but as he finds writing difficult I couldn't get him on to the descriptosaurus a while back. I was thinking I had to begin earlier in the process.... I might have to start with story games or cubes first then move on to writing later?

School tried him on Word but he is too immature to use it. Plays about with fonts to avoid writing. I downloaded a plain screen word processor called Monkeypad or something which was better but he just struggles to get a coherent story down - that was when I realised his problems weren't really in his hands, but in his head!

What are the Brilliant books?

Are you in an ASD provision? How the hell do you get them to focus on the activity? My son is the master of avoidance!

Yes in ASD provision. I suppose achieving focus is easier in school. The environment is very black and white- you do this to get that- so they know they won't have access to the ipads or whatever they want until they've given their best to a task they are asked to do. There are also lots of adults around to make sure everyone stays on it!

All The vast majority of the kids arrive hating writing. We go through the process with each one of saying 'we don't care about your spelling, you don't have to hand write, 50 words is ok today- maybe we'll get 70 tomorrow.. we are just interested in what you have to say'. Usually when that message goes home they will start writing quite willingly. At that point you can get in and start to tweak the spelling and grammar. I currently have a child who was a total writing refuser (with associated epic meltdowns) who now writes his own stories in free choosing!!

Book

OT did a trial of a NeoSmart typepad last week. Brilliant! DS typed out a story which would never have been possible on paper. Feeling excited!